Ahead of his Essential Endo course on Saturday and Sunday October 18 and 19thin Perth, we caught up with Dr Omar Ikram.
Early in his career Omar realised that there was a vast need in the community for dentists who were proficient in endodontics. At this time, he also realised that there was a need for educational courses in endodontics, due to the wide variation in the understanding of the procedure between dentists.
“To gain clinical experience initially I decided to take on simple retreatment cases, which avoided needing to refer these to a specialist and slow down the overall treatment plan,” he recalls. “As I took on these cases my experience started to grow, and I started receiving referrals from the other 9 dentists at the practice.”
To fulfil these two passions, Omar decided to undertake specialist training. He completed his fellowship for the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons and began specialist training at King’s College in London, UK. After completing specialist training Omar moved to Sydney and currently runs a specialist endodontic clinic. He supplements his time in the clinic with travelling locally and internationally teaching dentists not only how to perform root canal treatment to their best ability, but also how to achieve the goals they want out of their career.
“The best part about teaching is to be able to help dentists who have all the same problems as I did, then empower them to overcome these, as my mentors did when I was learning– and that is really fulfilling,” Omar says.
It is clear Omar loves sharing his passion for endodontics with others. “I like being able to take someone from a place where they are scared to take on simple cases, to the stage where they actually look forward to treating them,” he adds. “The other thing that has happened over the last 8-10 years is that many of the dentists I have taught online through social media and at hands on courses have gone on to specialise, that is quite fulfilling. Giving back to others is in fact what gives us most fulfilment in dentistry. We all started as health professionals to help others and we should never ever lose focus of this in our career. The obvious way to help others is through treating patients and empowering our practice dental team. But now we have the online platforms to be able to do this globally.”
Omar will be coming to Perth in October to teach the ‘Essential Endo’ course. “The course is designed primarily with dentists who have had minimal clinical experience,” he says. “It is designed for new graduate dentists, dental students and also for dentists who largely provide cosmetic dentistry, but want to learn some simple tips and tricks.”
“The idea is to empower these dentists to be able to do some endodontics. The course represents the first steps of learning endodontics in the real world. It focuses on how to provide emergency care to patients and become proficient in simple endo cases. Dentists who attend will also be able to understand the differences between two motor driven instrumentation systems and get to use them in a hands-on setting. It is a deep dive into the foundations of endodontics, but also in broad enough detail so that there is something for everyone.
“At the end of the day, all dentists need to know something about endo,” he says. “All dentists have to treat patients in pain occasionally, whether it is someone who has had a deep restoration done and they have a pulpitis, or a cracked tooth, you need to know how to get them out of pain even if you are going to refer the case. The endodontist generally isn’t available on the day of the emergency.”
Dr Omar Ikram will be presenting the two-day Essential Endo course on October 18 and 19. To book go to our website, cpd.adawa.com.au
